Different subgroups study the mechanisms and evolutionary histories of enzymes. Our focus is Class I and Class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, because these enzymes accelerate the slowest step required for protein synthesis, and hence were probably among the very first enzymes to appear on earth.

The Carter Lab grew from a foundation in Structural Biology and now uses cutting edge protein design, computational, molecular, and biophysical methods to study both mechanistic and evolutionary aspects of Enzyme Catalysis. A map of how our studies connect is shown below, with links to successively more specialized pages.